Booher: No easy call to make on Milleson's future

Kary BOOHER Kary Booher. Nathan Papes/News-Leader

So what's going to happen with Nyla Milleson? Will she resign as basketball coach of the Missouri State Lady Bears? Or will athletic director Kyle Moats call it an era and fire her?

Like anybody, those questions have been on my mind the past couple of weeks and, frankly, I'm on the fence about this.

Yes, sports columnists are supposed to take hard-line stands, still be fair to a tradition as great as the Lady Bears and a coach but ultimately make a call. But it's not so easy here, because it's also not quite clear what is truly ailing the program that Cheryl Burnett built.

I, too, have read the letters to the editor in which some fans have demanded a change while others threw their support behind Milleson.

I've also followed along the embarrassing, late-season trend of Missouri State falling into sinkholes early in games - by 13 one night, 13 again, 24 and 22. And the night of the 24-point deficit, it ballooned to 42.

Never did I think that would happen to a Lady Bears team. Then again, it's still hard to grasp a 14-17 record, or a 15-point loss in the "play-in" round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.

Still, it's difficult to see how Missouri State president Clif Smart and Moats could justify canning the coach.

After all, it was just last November when they agreed to bring back football coach Terry Allen for an eighth season. And that was despite Allen having lost 49 of the past 77 games, never coming close to sniffing a Valley title and despite the program hemorrhaging season tickets.

Milleson, on the other hand, has 77 wins in the past four of her six seasons, including a Valley regular-season title last year.

But this is not as clear-cut as Allen's situation. Fans care about basketball, not football.

The difference is that NCAA Tournament berths were long an expectation of the Lady Bears. They haven't earned a berth in Milleson's tenure.

Having said that, it wouldn't be shocking if Smart and Moats - a real "if" at this point - turned to two issues for cover: the buyout for former Lady Bears coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, and Lady Bears attendance.

While Allen would have required a buyout of $210,000, that hasn't stopped MSU before. Granted, it was a different president and A.D. But Abrahamson-Henderson was given $257,000 to go away, even after she resigned. She had three years left on her contract.

Milleson has two years left at $141,380 a year, according to MSU documents.

Attendance also could be a factor in this. The university has debt to pay on JQH Arena and was banking on Lady Bears games helping to pay the bills.

Years after Lady Bears enjoyed enormous crowds, the average this year was 2,606. Gulp.

As for Milleson, it's difficult for me to see her quitting, especially in light of having covered her days at Drury University. She's a competitor and probably hates to lose more than loves winning. If that makes sense.

Consider MSU's incoming recruiting class a big influence: Five already have signed, including the No. 70-ranked post player and No. 62-ranked forward by ESPN. The post player is 6-foot-4 Katelyn Weber of Little Rock, Ark., and she chose the Lady Bears over Kansas State, Iowa State, Iowa and Arkansas.

For a coach who recruited Casey Garrison - who became the second-leading scorer in Lady Bears history and graduated last year - Milleson's got to be thinking this year was only a bump in the road.

That said, Milleson would do well to acknowledge that the brand of basketball night in and night out is not a great draw. Her critics are right to question it. These Lady Bears were out of sorts on offense and defense, and lineups swung wildly.

But Lady Bears fans also must realize this isn't 1992 or 2001 anymore. To borrow a phrase from then-Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino, Jackie Stiles isn't walking through that door.

So how do you fix all this? I don't know. At Missouri State, it will take a long discussion.

Kary Booher, Sunday Sports Editor of the News-Leader, can be reached at 836-1180 or by email at kbooher@news-leader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @karybooherNL.